Yucca Mountain News Clips
Wednesday, May 14, 2003
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Las Vegas SUN
May 14, 2003
DOE says heat of nuke waste casks would prevent corrosion at Yucca
By Benjamin Grove
<grove@lasvegassun.com>
LAS VEGAS SUN
WASHINGTON -- Metal containers of nuclear waste are not likely to corrode in the Yucca Mountain repository tunnels because the casks will be so hot they will blast away moisture for at least 1,000 years, Energy Department officials told a review panel Tuesday.
The issues of container corrosion and possible radiation leaks are key to winning approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the storage of high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain for 10,000 years.
Department laboratory officials provided detailed arguments in support of the project at the regular meeting in Washington of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, a panel appointed by Congress to watchdog the Yucca project. The meeting continued this morning.
Bo Bodvarsson, director of earth sciences for the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, said Tuesday that the tiny amount of water that could seep down into the mountain and into the tunnels would be driven away by heat for at least 1,000 years, possibly 2,500 years, because the Energy Department is embracing a "hot" repository design. The hot design calls for the heat-emitting waste casks to be placed just inches apart, causing higher temperatures in the tunnel.
And Mark Peters, science and technology project manager at Los Alamos National Laboratory, said that even if the "seepage" water entered the tunnels, it would be "benign" to waste containers. He said the chemical makeup of the kinds of moisture in the Yucca tunnels that could corrode the casks is rare and found in small quantities. Peters also said the dust or salts that could accumulate on the casks would not initiate corrosion.
Joe Farmer, senior scientist for chemistry and materials science with Yucca contractor Bechtel SAIC, said studies had proven that samples of alloy 22, the metal that likely would be used to fabricate the waste containers, have not corroded in tests in which the Yucca environment was simulated.
But Nevada experts believe corrosion is a serious problem that Energy Department officials have not adequately studied. The Nevada Nuclear Projects Agency, in its own study, has found that alloy 22 would not be immune to corrosion during the 10,000-year lifetime of the repository.
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Las Vegas SUN
May 14, 2003
Yucca looks to future technology
By Benjamin Grove
<grove@lasvegassun.com>
LAS VEGAS SUN
WASHINGTON -- A new Yucca Mountain program is up and running in its first year with a goal of developing futuristic new technologies that could revolutionize the nuclear waste repository.
The fledgling Science and Technology program aims to spur research that leads to unforeseen advances in materials science, robotics, tunnel engineering and waste transportation, said Robert Budnitz, a Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientist serving as the new program's start-up manager.
"We're really looking for out-of-the-box ideas," Budnitz said.
Budnitz made a presentation about the new program to the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board during the second day of a regular meeting in Washington. Congress appointed the panel to watchdog the Yucca project science.
The Energy Department has been studying Yucca Mountain for nearly 20 years and last year deemed the site the safest place to permanently bury the nation's most radioactive nuclear waste. The department is now preparing an application for a license to construct the first-of-its-kind project based on current science and technologies.
But Budnitz said Yucca managers must "take a long view" into the future in order to develop new and better methods to transport, handle and store waste in the decades to come. New technologies could be applied at Yucca before the repository even opens, he said. The repository is scheduled to open by 2010 at the earliest and would close after roughly 50 years.
The new program was launched this year with $1.7 million, but Energy Department officials have asked Congress for $25 million to launch new high-tech projects in next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. Budnitz plans to collect research proposals from corporations, universities and laboratories by this fall.
Meanwhile scientific studies of how effectively Yucca would isolate waste from the environment are ongoing, Yucca science manager Mark Peters told the board today.
The Energy Department wrapped many of its studies before it declared the site suitable last year. But some studies are ongoing and will continue for years.
Nevada officials have criticized the department for not knowing enough about Yucca before deeming it safe, and for department plans to obtain a Yucca license while scientific studies are ongoing.
But department officials say they know enough to apply for a license and they say it is prudent to continue to analyze how heat, water and rock interact at Yucca.
Peters outlined 11 of the studies, which include:
* Analysis of how heat affects the rock of a test tunnel at Yucca, in which nine mock, stainless steel models of waste containers also are under watch. Waste emits heat and scientists are trying to determine how it would affect the rock tunnels, as well as moisture in the tunnels, over time. In one development, iron oxide was found on one of the canisters in August, Peters said.
* Analysis of dust that would accumulate on the waste containers.
* Analysis of the consequences of volcanic lava entering the tunnels.
Energy Department officials on Tuesday told the board that the waste containers are not likely to corrode in the Yucca tunnels because the tunnel rock will be so hot it will blast away moisture for at least 1,000 years.
The issues of container corrosion and possible radiation leaks are key to obtaining approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Department laboratory officials provided detailed arguments against the likelihood of container corrosion.
Bo Bodvarsson, director of earth sciences for the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, said that the tiny amount of water that eventually could seep down into the mountain and into the tunnels would be driven away by heat. That's because the Energy Department is embracing a "hot" repository design. The hot design calls for the heat-emitting waste casks to be placed just inches apart, causing higher temperatures in the tunnel.
Peters said that even if the "seepage" water entered the tunnels, it would be "benign" to waste containers. He said the chemical makeup of the kinds of moisture in the Yucca tunnels that could corrode the casks is rare and found in small quantities. Peters also said the dust or salts that could accumulate on the casks would not initiate corrosion.
Joe Farmer, a senior scientist for Yucca contractor Bechtel SAIC, said studies had proven that samples of Alloy 22, the metal that likely would be used to fabricate the waste containers, have not corroded in test after test in which the Yucca environment was simulated.
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Las Vegas Review Journal
May 14, 2003
Energy officials bypass bidding process
Agency will award Yucca Mountain legal contract after informal search
By STEVE TETREAULT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department plans to bypass customary formal bidding and instead will award a multimillion-dollar legal services contract for the Yucca Mountain Project based on a more informal search among law firms, DOE officials confirmed Tuesday.
While Energy Department officials said they will help keep the nuclear waste repository on track, the move drew criticism from Nevada's U.S. senators, who characterized it as a way to "cut corners" on the repository that they strongly oppose.
"With mismanagement and possible conflicts of interest already part of the history of the Yucca Mountain Project, it is imperative that every step be scrutinized carefully and done by the book," Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said in a prepared statement.
Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham signed a formal finding late last month saying the department's need for specialized legal help warrants invoking a seldom used procurement law exemption.
The exception will enable DOE to utilize "less formal competitive evaluations" to hire new lawyers.
"We intend to award a contract to a law firm using a competitive selection process that is specially tailored to this unique and highly important endeavor," Abraham said in an April 30 letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., that accompanied the three-page finding.
The selected firm would help DOE prepare a complex license application for a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain by a December 2004 target and defend it in proceedings before a Nuclear Regulatory Commission evaluation board.
The job requires "intangible qualities" in understanding public interest matters "that cannot be readily reduced to specific evaluation criteria," Abraham's finding stated. Developing formal evaluations would "artificially constrain" DOE and responding law firms, it stated.
Abraham said a firm could be hired after May 30. But Nevada's senators criticized the Energy Department's plan.
"They are apparently up to their same old tricks again of trying to hire lawyers who will help them bend the rules and cheat on the test," Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said in a statement. "They intend to hire a law firm based on a unique and questionable process, which should come as no surprise given their track record on hiring lawyers, silencing their critics, and pre-determining the science."
Abraham spokesman Joe Davis said Tuesday the planned Yucca repository "is a unique and a first-of-its-kind facility. We believe there's no doubt specialized legal services will help us move through the licensing process.
Davis said the government's formal procurement steps can take 18 months.
He estimated the contract value at $1 million this year and $4 million to $5 million each subsequent year until 2007, when DOE expects to win a license to build a repository 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
DOE officials said former Secretary Hazel O'Leary used the same process in 1996 to pick specialized lawyers to sell the Elk Hills Naval Petroleum Reserve.
Legal sources said only a few firms might fit the bill, including Morgan Lewis & Bockius, which DOE has hired in the past to work on Yucca quality assurance matters.
The last time DOE was looking for a law firm for the Yucca project, it conducted a formal competition. Chicago-based Winston & Strawn was given a $16.5 million legal services contract in 1999. The firm withdrew from the program in November 2001 amid conflict of interest allegations.
The law firm that lost in 1999, LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene and MacRae, challenged the Winston & Strawn award in a lawsuit being contested in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. LeBoeuf, Lamb contends it should have been given the DOE work once Winston & Strawn left.
Legal analysts said DOE's steps to hire a new firm while a lawsuit is pending contributes to the unusual nature of the department's move.
Michael McBride, a LeBoeuf, Lamb partner, declined to comment Tuesday, citing the ongoing litigation.
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Las Vegas SUN
May 13, 2003
Yucca project struggles to stay open after cuts
By Benjamin Grove
<grove@lasvegassun.com>
LAS VEGAS SUN
WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department is struggling to keep the Yucca Mountain project on track to meet key deadlines amid budget cuts, top project managers said today.
The project may lay off 50 to 60 workers in Nevada, further delay new studies and limit activity at the site, including visitor tours.
The plan for a high-level nuclear waste repository was dealt a crippling blow when Congress allocated just $460 million to the Yucca project the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, a $134 million cut from what the department requested, Yucca managers said.
The Energy Department has requested $591 million for the next fiscal year, though officials say they can get by on as little as $460 million.
The cuts have forced managers to tighten belts. At a meeting today in Washington, W. John Arthur, Energy Department deputy director for repository development, for the first time outlined a list of some results of the budget cuts:
* A possible layoff of 50 to 60 workers in Nevada.
* Reducing activity at the site.
* Delaying studies planned for this year, including a new thermal test in which the effects of heat inside Yucca would be analyzed.
* A reduction in tours to possibly three a week or less, instead of almost daily.
"As you look at it, I guess that sounds pretty challenging," Arthur told the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, which Congress appointed to oversee scientific work on Yucca.
Possible layoffs and reducing Yucca site activity were first announced last week.
Project managers have even considered shutting down the Yucca site, where a few experiments are ongoing, to save money, Arthur said. But a shutdown is not planned at this time, he said.
The board today also heard discussion on persistent problems in the project's Quality Assurance program from top project managers.
A recent internal survey showed a majority of project workers do not feel comfortable bringing their concerns about the project to their immediate supervisors, Arthur said. The survey polled 25 percent of the project's 2,000 workers, which includes federal Energy Department workers and contractors. Arthur today did not have the detailed results, which he just saw for the first time on Monday, he said.
"I wouldn't say morale is low, but there is a lot of frustration out there," Arthur told reporters during a break.
Arthur and Energy Department Yucca chief Margaret Chu said they were trying to create a new "culture" within the project in which workers would be more comfortable bringing concerns forward. Their message comes after several workers have said they were disciplined -- in one case fired -- after they shined a spotlight on alleged project flaws.
The department is scrambling to stay on target to meet two key deadlines: submitting its license application to the NRC by December 2004, and opening the repository to accept waste by 2010.
About 16 percent of the complex license application is complete, Arthur said. But he noted that "that's about where we should be right now" to meet the deadline.
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State of Nevada
Agency for Nuclear Projects
www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/
nwpo@nuc.state.nv.us
775-687-3744
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